I got the hang of it after a couple, I think you will too. You want to reach 100 TP as fast as you can, the numbers hanging over the characters are the minimum amount of TP they will use in an attack, there is often bonus TP (no idea how they calculate that) BUT your two healers can never surpass 99 total TP, meaning they can never finish a combo. If a defender finishes a TP combo then you can reactivate the person with the highest TP in the same combo. SO, first pick an attack (chain order) for when you hit 100 or more TP, (I aim first for the attackers chain orders usually) ideally you want to open up your attack with an attacker, they have a 'first blood' bonus whatever tf that is, it's good. THEN if you are no where near 100 TP use a healer, to pad it closer to 100 TP (because remember, they can not reach 100 they can only reach 99, once you are close to 100 use your defender which will then in return allow your highest TP dealer that round, (usually the attacker) to be used the next round. Simple right?
Picked XC2 back up and just finished chapter 3, focused on actually finishing it can’t wait to check out 3 (eventually)
“the numbers hanging over the characters are the minimum amount of TP they will use in an attack“ You literally already lost me here lol I need to watch a video maybe
lmao yeah watch a video, once you pick a chain attack, you will see your entire roster and they each have a number over them.
Hitting 100 allows you to execute your chain command, which you pick first before doing the TP stuff. Hitting 150 or 200 allows for bonuses. If you have people left over after the first chain command is executed, you can go another round. I usually get 3 rounds in.
Once you use someone, they are done and cannot be used again UNLESS you use a defender to surpass 100 which will reactivate someone (The person with the highest TP used in that round). Healers are perfect for using in between an attacker and defender to ensure you hit 100, but remember they cannot finish off a round, they will max out at 99, so they are also useful to get to 99 then you have someone who can get another 60 or 70 which brings you to 150+ which gives you more bonus damage. There are multiple uses for them, pretty much always use them second. You start off with 150% damage bonus, each chain attack performed with party members left over bring the bonus up another 100% so by a third round you are doing massive damage. Not only that, if you activate the chain attack when an enemy is almost dead, as soon as you kill them it turns into ‘overkill’ and you are now getting like a 300% EXP bonus which keeps going up the longer you go. if you overlill an elite enemy you can get MASSIVE exp. I know i’m rambling on a bit but it will click once you do it. Watch a video too lol.
The idea is to hit 100 TP with as few members as possible each round, so you can go another round. Going 3 rounds is only possible by using a defender to surpass the 100 and reactivating someone. When they are reactivated they also get a huge boost in their initial TP.
I liked 1 and 2 (never played X) but after completing 2 I feel like I was more invested in the story than I enjoyed the game itself, and that a lot of it can tend to feel like simply grinding with combat that wasn't all that exciting. Is 3 that much different so far?
What keeps 3 fresh and feel less of a grind is you have a class system with 6 party members. So that means there are constant opportunities for a new class unlock with a different moveset for you to learn which is really fun imo. You also have 6 party members and can switch very easily to another member during a battle to continue fighting as a different class at the snap kf a finger.
I sort of get it now, though find it hard to predict how much TP one character will actually bring. On another note, is there a reason not to interlink as much possible while in combat?
Yeah there is a part where you need to estimate and hope the bonus is enough, I think that's just RNG and part of the fun. You can definitely use it as much as possible, there are levels you can gain though from holding off and doing fusion arts during the battle that will make your interlink dude stronger for that fight. Of course you would only want to do that in longer, tough fights. On the bottom left you can see what level your interlink will be at when you use it. It resets every battle.
Liking the main story so far but I'm finding exploration to be pretty unrewarding. In past games there has always been a bunch of side quests to pull you around the map but there are surprisingly few so far here. Like, I've had max 3 going at the same time. Does this change? I'm a bit into chapter 3
things open up a lot more in the back half of chapter 3 - there still aren't anywhere near the number of sidequests as previous games yet but they tease you with a bunch of question marks on the map which will generally lead you to new hero quests, which will lead you to new optional colonies with their own handful of sidequests and new traversal abilities to lead to more optional areas
I’ve been in a major BoI hold the past couple days. Going to continue Chap 3 tonight. I also don’t wanna blow through this amazing game too fast.
I have just been skipping through the tutorials. I hope it won't be like the other three games where there are whole systems I never learn in a complete playthrough.
In my experience it hasnt taken nearly as long to get a grasp of everything as the other games but you definitely want to read the tutorials once you get into Chapter 2 and on.